Marigold Farmer

Marigold Farmer

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First appearance

Last appearance

Nicknames

Gender

Twitter

Marigold Louise Farmer[1] is the roommate of Angus and human companion and best friend[2] of Momo. Before she met Marten, Dora and Hannelore she was a recluse with bad hygiene who only played MMOs, read manga and watched anime. However, her social life and personal hygiene have improved since her introduction, evident by her more frequent appearance outside of her apartment and her clearer complexion.

Marigold is now Jeph Jacques' favorite character to write for[3] and favorite character overall.[4]

Contents

Marigold first appeared in Yaoi Zone. Marten and Dora bring Pintsize to Marigold in the hopes that she can fix a rewiring job that Pintsize did to himself at the suggestion of PT410X, a Linux based AnthroPC. She initially protests, before Momo convinces her to fix Pintsize. As payment for her services, Dora calls Hannelore and convinces her to clean Marigold's very messy[5] room.

Marigold earns money maintaining[9] her high-strung[10] father's shoe sales web site.[11] It is unclear whether she has other income. Jeph Jacques said on Formspring that her living is "server maintenance". It would be possible for her to earn income doing AnthroPC repair, a field in which she has expertise.[12]

Marigold has some confidence and self esteem issues,[20][21] most of stemming from her physical appearance and lifestyle.[22][23] She wishes that boys would find her attractive and pay attention to her. Despite this, she seems rather reluctant to put effort into improving herself[24] and vehemently defends her habits.[25][26] She often needs a little push in the right direction from her friends; both Hannelore and Momo are concerned about her eating[27][28] and sleeping,[1][29] and try to keep her from playing video games for too long.[30]

She tends to assume the worst about how other people see her,[31][32] frequently assuming that they're patronizing or making fun of her if they offer her compliments or genuine concern.[33][34] She has trouble acknowledging that other people might find her attractive,[35] and is unaware that they do.[36][37][38]

She is very socially awkward,[15][13][39] largely owing to bullying[40] and a lack of social interaction in her younger years. Marigold has a very low level of self-awareness[41] and has a propensity to blurt out things that may unintentionally come across as insensitive or insulting.[9][42] She sometimes catches herself, however, and will make a dramatic fuss over her own faux pas.[43][44] In general, she seems to be very hard on herself.[45]

Much like with her appearance, Marigold seems less than content with her paucity of a social life outside WoW,[46] and while she enjoys socializing,[47] she is frequently reluctant to abandon her more introverted hobbies and often has to be pushed into social situations.[48][2] Although she would like a boyfriend, she seems to have trouble dealing with boys who show interest in her.[49]

Her personal hang-ups aside, Marigold tries her best to be a good friend. She is appreciative of people who try to help her[50] and wants her friends to be happy, even if it means putting her own needs and feelings aside. For example, even though she had a crush on Angus and was hurt to find out that he was interested in Faye, she went out of her way to have the two of them patch things up after a silly argument.[51][52] and shows her support of their relationship and personal happiness.[53] When Momo genuinely expresses interest in getting a new chassis, Marigold puts her concerns about the cost aside and surprises her with a trip to Idoru to purchase one.[54] She wants to make sure that Momo is comfortable and freely offered her an additional room if she wanted it.[55]

She often seems rather easily amused and excited about little things,[56][57][58] although she can take her hobbies quite seriously.[59] This is particularly true about WoW and her rivalry with Dale.[60] Recently, she has been getting better at extroverting her thoughts and playfully teasing her friends, though they're not always appropriate.[61]

She has been cultivating a friendship with Hannelore,[62][63] who may be her best human friend. Her best friend overall, however, is her companion robot.[64]

Marigold likes to dance when she is happy,[65][66] and will join in with others' happy dances.[67]

Marigold is exclusively heterosexual.[68] She is inexperienced and in some respects naive, but has an extensive porn collection,[69][70] particularly including yaoi and hentai. As of her date with Dale in 2639, she is clearly no longer a virgin.

Marigold has not shown an interest in music and has been known to leave the room when others started discussing a band.[73] She does not like MC Hammer, though she doesn't quite recognize his musical style.[74]

Before the events of Questionable Content, Marigold is very unlucky in the art of love, stating that she has never even had a date, let alone a boyfriend.[68]

Over the course of Strips 1441 to 1630, Marigold develops a crush on Angus, her roommate. When she tries to kiss Angus,[76] he stops her, stating that he only likes her as a friend, which causes her to run off crying and spiral into a deep depression.

After long periods of refusing to eat or leave her room, she seemed to be getting back to normal around strip 1668 when she is seen paying for a pizza in between WoW raids.

Between strips 2140 and 2163, while visiting Hannelore's space station, Marigold has an amusing set of romantic encounters with a handsome yet awkward young scientist named Francis York, who is undeniably attracted to her.

In 2148, she nearly ruins her chances with him by almost vomiting on him from zero-g sickness (she wisely pushes him away before puking). The next morning, the two still show intense interest in each other and share a passionate embrace and kiss before being unintentionally interrupted by Hannelore and Marten.

Although Marigold has denied interest in Dale, other characters have noted that their long-standing antagonistic encounters seem to hold flirtatious undertones.[18][78]Momo in particular seems adamant about having the two become friends. Between strips 2485 and 2489, she invites Dale and Marigold out to share a meal together in a diner, but the two have a misunderstanding when upon returning from the girl's room with Momo to find their table empty, Marigold assumes that Dale had rudely abandoned them. They later clear up this misunderstanding between strips 2507 and 2513 when Momo once again attempts to have them patch things up (this time with colorful assistance from Dale's temporary and crass virtual AI companion, May).

After Dale apologizes for his behavior concerning WoW and explains that he has a hard time talking to girls, he and Marigold settle their differences and agree to hang out and watch anime together. Their dynamic has since changed from antagonistic to cutely awkward. Marigold in particular appears to have changed her tune about Dale as she appears nervous around him.[79][80][81] During an awkward evening watching anime, Marigold and Dale each admitted that they found the other attractive, though Dale had to leave before anything further happened.[8]

Over the course of strips 2589 and 2643, Dale later visits Marigold at the Cafe and they unexpectedly exchange a passionate session of kissing. This leads to her asking him out on a date. But once Dale arrives, he is informed by Momo that Marigold has accidentally over-medicated to combat nervousness, leading her to sleep through the night while Dale and Momo watch movies, and Dale makes pancakes. Seeing how caring Dale was regarding her antihistamine screw-up, Marigold drags Dale to her room and the two 'consumate the date', leaving Dale on the proverbial "Cloud 9" and Marigold confiding in Momo and Hanners that by sleeping with Dale so soon, she questions her self-control and decency.

There has been considerable debate on the Questionable Content forum about whether Marigold is genuinely indifferent to others, or just inexperienced and clueless. Her detractors point to a paucity of cases of Marigold being generous, compared to Marten or even Pintsize. Supporters adduce her sharing experiences and items from her collection with Hannelore. The option with the most votes in a poll about her character was "Trying to be good but not sure how".

It is interesting to note that when Hannelore picked her closest friends to join her on her trip to the space station, she chose Marten and Marigold.

Marigold has mentioned her father (who has since appeared in the strip)[10] but there has been no word in the comic about her mother. If she had an absent, dead, or neglectful mother that deprived her of an early role model for being female, some of her problems could be explained. "Dead" can be ruled out by her mention of "parents" in one tweet, since Twitter is canonical.[82]

Her interactions with Dale are consistent with a "boy meets girl" plot.

User Binary from the forum contributed "Firm armored gal", which could refer to her completing her armor set. Her full name, points out forum user bogusman82, rearranges to "I am lord of gamers, I rule!".